ABSTRACT
The evolution of an epidemic is conditioned by the health protection behaviors adopted by the population, which depends, in part, on their perception of the risk of contracting the disease. This study on the perception of the risk of COVID-19 infection in a sample of the Spanish population (N = 374) reveals that significant predictors of one’s perception of the risk of infection are personal experience with the disease, trust in those responsible for managing it, and personal attitudes towards the effectiveness of the protective measures established by the administration. The individual factors (personal experience, trust, knowledge…) and prosocial behavior (as opposed to individualism) were found to be the main elements related to the perception of risk and the performance of protection behaviors. © 2022 Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The multiple approaches of the current epidemic context due to Covid-19 highlight the need to address such complex problems from multidimensional approaches, and they make clear the contribution and potential of the integrative gaze of a Biosocial Anthropology, and more particularly, of Biosocial Medical Anthropology, as an adequate framework for the polyhedral considerations of the health-disease-care processes. Within this framework of synthetic analysis of the complexity and multidimensionality of the current Covid-19 pandemic, it is proposed to consider the epidemic phenomenon as a “syndemic”, as a convergence of the collective disease situation with multiple problems and convergent of biological, social, psychosocial, environmental or sociocultural factors. © 2020 Sociedad Española de Antropología Física